In the end, the score-line of 1-1 justifies the kind of cricket that was on display in the two game T20I series. The pitches were tailor-made for allowing the batsmen to get away with murder – and more – whereas the bowlers could be proud to not concede more than eight in an over on an average. There were a couple of short spells where the bowlers did look like they did have an outside chance of being anything apart from just number-fillers, but that was too few and far between and in the end, more than 800 runs were scored in the two games at an average runs per over of more than ten.
Need to stick their hands into Glue instead of Butter:
Looking back at the just concluded T20I series between India and Sri Lanka, the one mighty factor that will probably remain etched in most cricket fans’ minds, is probably the appalling levels of fielding that were on display. It began with the Indians in the first T20I, continued with them in the second T20I as well, before managing to rub off on to the Lankans at Mohali.
The sheer numbers – of dropped catches and missed run-out chances – do not do any justice to the almost comical depths of despair that the fielding fell to. Yet, for the sake of driving home the point, India missed out on five catches and a run-out in the first game, while ‘improving’ it in the second by dropping six. Lanka then sealed the supposed pact by letting go of another couple but missing half a dozen run-out chances in the process!
Ironically, Team India had only just appointed Michael Young, as their fielding consultant for a period of two weeks. And given the display in the fielding, either this will be the last of the contracts he ever signs with the Indian side, or the signing could not have come at a better time and would probably culminate into a much longer contract.
Either way, the commentator and former Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar had the last say in the matter when he exclaimed, “The manner in which they are fielding, they will not even catch a cold in this Mohali weather!”
‘It is almost all over for the opposition when Sangakkara sings!’
The form exhibited by the Sri Lankan skipper in the final test match at Brabourne, after four successive relative failures should have sent the warning signals to the Indian bowlers. As it turned out, either the signals were ignored, or the execution to those well-laid out plans was wayward, and the Lankan captain smashed two successive half centuries in the games to lead the side to 200 plus totals in the process. The two half centuries, incidentally, came off 21 and 29 balls respectively.
The difference in the two games was that while Chamara Kapugedera afforded him good enough support in the middle overs of their innings, his dismissal in the middle of the innings in the second T20I led to a Lankan collapse. Those nine less runs and the fact that they fielded worse in the second game ended Sri Lanka’s hopes of winning it 2-0.
The Indian fightback:
For about three out of the four innings during the series, India had been thoroughly outplayed before Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh combined well to bring India home. It was the highest ever total chased in a T20I as they had in the second game, and was abetted in no small terms by the lack of an effort exhibited by the tourists on the field.
However, credit must be afforded where its due, and the batting approach adopted by the Indian top-order was quite different from what it had in the first T20I where the batsmen barely seemed to have much strategy going in for the chase. Gautam Gambhir had provided the Indians with a start that they could have only dreamt of, but the batting display by the rest of the batsmen was nothing short of nightmare. In the second T20I, there was a healthier approach towards chasing it down, with a definite plan of how the batsmen needed to go about it, instead of smashing every ball in the air.
Match to India!
Change of format, will continue to look to continue winning streak
After a rather one-sided test match series which has already given a peek-review into how run-gluttonous the rest of the tour would be, the Indian s will host Sri Lanka for a two game T20I series. And despite what transpired in the test series, the T20Is promise to be lot more closely fought, thanks mainly due to the format itself, and partially due to the fact that the Indians have struggled to get the results their way in the T20s. This piece previews the T20I series between India and Sri Lanka.
New Personnel add spice:
It wasn’t a surprise when the Indian selectors decided to get in quite a number of new guys into the T20I squad. Especially given that the Indians have had a rather rough year in this format of the game. What has been surprising, it is that the majority of the changes have been afforded to the bowling department, whereas the batting is mostly unscathed.
India will obviously be bolstered by the presence of Virender Sehwag, who had missed out on the ICC World T20 due to a shoulder injury, but apart from him, the batting line-up is fairly the same. Yusuf Pathan should hold his place in the lower order as an off-spinning all-rounder. The bowling, on the other hand, could see some changes, what with the presence of Ashok Dinda, Sudeep Tyagi and R.Ashwin. At least one of these three should make their international debut, and in the absence of Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan – both of whom have been rested – the support cast will look to make their presence felt. Sreesanth is in the squad, but may miss out after he was hit by a stomach bug.
Sri Lanka will welcome their grand old man, Sanath Jayasuriya, into the playing eleven. However, his form will be much dissected and another couple of failures could very well send him into retirement. Muttiah Muralitharan will miss the T20s due to injury, and that could mean that Ajantha Mendis will have another opportunity to get one back from the Indians. Off-spin bowler Muthumudalige Pushpakumara could be thrown into the deep end, and it will be interesting to see how the Indians handle him.
India’s appalling T20 record to the fore?
Believe it or not, but India has had a terrible T20 record following their ICC World T20 win in 2007. Post that tournament, India had beaten Australia in a one-off game at home, but beyond that, lost to the Aussies, Kiwis (twice), England, West Indies, South Africa, while winning their only game of note against Sri Lanka. Despite all their players being a part of the IPL in both the seasons, it is very evident that the Indians have not been very comfortable with this format of the game and this discomfiture will be put to fore in the series.
Sri Lanka had a good run till they lost to Pakistan in the finals of the ICC World T20 this year, after which they have lost four successive games. Plus, they would be reeling under the mental agony from being bruised by the Indian batsmen in the test matches.
All in all, the cliché needs to be sounded out. It is a format where the tag of favourites remains as just that – a tag!
Jacob Oram celebrates the wicket of Nuwan Kulasekera, Sri Lanka v New Zealand, 1st Twenty20, Colombo, September 2, 2009
Despite Tilakaratne Dilshan’s continuous batting exuberance, the Sri Lankan side collapsed like nine pins while chasing a target of 142 for a win against New Zealand to lose the first T20I by three runs.
With only 142 needed for a win, the Sri Lankan side had raced off to 67/2 in less than seven overs, and needed only 75 runs in 13 overs for a win with eight wickets standing. A walk in the park? Not when you have a middle-order like the Lankans’ in this game. It capitulated like nine pins and there was not a single player who could guide the team to a victory after the Dilshan blitzkrieg (57 off 28 deliveries).
Earlier, the Kiwis had scraped their way up to 141 as well. Again, it was a one-man show, with Ross Taylor taking up the attack to the Lankan spinners. He smashed a 45-ball 60, but there was only Martin Guptill to support him with an innings of 29. Jesse Ryder was the only other batsman to get to double figures with a 13 to his name!
Daniel Vettori who had successfully throttled Read the rest of this entry...
Looks like the duo has been declared joint winners eh? No, that is just posing for the camera ops, but, to be frank, given the things both teams have gone through in the last couple of months, won’t it be a bad idea to do so!?
The last such major tournament which had seen the two teams being declared winners together was the Champions Trophy of 2002, when India and Sri Lanka played the same game twice over, and yet, couldn’t complete it! And no, they did not resume it from where it had been left off on the previous day, but actually went on to restart it; which clearly said that the administrators had lost their heads while framing the rules.
Had such a rule existed in the 1999 World Cup – in England – one can be rest assured that half the games would have been registered as no results through the duration of the tournament!
Coming back to the game in question, Pakistan has been quarantined in the cricketing world after being termed unsafe for travellers, while Sri Lanka had been involved in an unfortunate terrorist attack and have been no better in terms of being terrorism-ravaged.
The picture makes perfect cricket-romantic sense to me!
In the end, the score-line of 1-1 justifies the kind of cricket that was on display in the two game T20I series. The pitches were tailor-made for allowing the batsmen to get away with murder – and more – whereas the bowlers could be proud to not concede more than eight in an over on an average. There were a couple of short spells where the bowlers did look like they did have an outside chance of being anything apart from just number-fillers, but that was too few and far between and in the end, more than 800 runs were scored in the two games at an average runs per over of more than ten.
